


what if we were the only two students in this history class,,, and we're both boys,,,

by jimatoshi



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-24
Updated: 2020-06-24
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:34:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24890902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jimatoshi/pseuds/jimatoshi
Summary: Kuroo is in his final semester of a chemistry degree, Tsukishima is in his second semester of a paleontology degree. They’re both taking a mandatory history class but for some reason they’re the only students??? (there is a real reason, I swear) (every description I wrote sounded like a clickbait title)Written for the orange court discord server’s summer solstice exchange for @nikfly! Love ya, nik <3!Oh and the theme is ice. I definitely remembered that!
Relationships: Kuroo Tetsurou/Tsukishima Kei
Comments: 6
Kudos: 72





	what if we were the only two students in this history class,,, and we're both boys,,,

**Author's Note:**

> This is in fact based on a real thing that happened. The two students in a class part, not the romance part. Or maybe the romance part happened too, I don’t know what happened between those two. I HAD A REALLY TOUGH TIME DESCRIBING what exactly was the situation, I hope it makes sense. 
> 
> Also I hate to write from one perspective so we get both of 'em here. "--" indicates a perspective change, but if you ever get confused about who is talking, Tsukishima thinks of himself as "Tsukishima," whereas Kuroo thinks of him as "Tsukki," so you can use that to tell whose perspective we are in.

Tsukishima was used to small classes. He took most of his classes on the secondary campus; it was close to the dig site, close to his house, and had less people. All three of these, to him, were perks. It wasn’t rare for there to be 5 or 10 students, especially with these conference-call-style classes where he watched the professor on the main campus lecture from a video feed to a classroom on the secondary campus.

So when he walked into an empty classroom on the first day of lectures, he simply assumed he was the earliest, and not, in fact, the _only_ student taking history. This assumption was incorrect, and an hour later Tsukishima was also the only one exiting the classroom. It was a stark contrast to the class on the other end of the call, where there were so many students that some were sitting on the floor.

There was something a bit odd about being the only student in an empty classroom, but the class was nothing particularly spectacular, so Tsukishima paid it no special note.

This lasted for approximately one week.

Wednesday, the second week of classes, Tsukishima is, as usual, in class taking his notes when 10 minutes into the lecture, it happens. _He_ happens. A boy (he looked older than Tsukishima, but nobody with hair that bad deserved the dignity of being called a man) _ran_ into the classroom, took a look at all of the empty seats, and sat in the one immediately to the left of Tsukishima. After a quick assessment of his options, Tsukishima decided the best plan of action was to simply ignore the new arrival.

“Psst,” mystery boy whispered.

“Pssssssst,” he said again, louder, poking Tsukishima’s face as if he wasn’t being deliberately ignored but rather just unheard.

This time, Tsukishima graced him with a glare in response, then turned back to his notes, which seemed to work based on the resulting silence. Tsukishima definitely spent the rest of class paying attention to the lecture and definitely not paying any attention at all to the 3DS game that mystery boy was playing right next to him. It’s not Tsukishima’s fault Pokémon has very distinctive music.

After class was over, mystery boy introduced himself as Kuroo Tetsurou, and Tsukishima, less annoyed now that it wasn’t _the middle of fucking class_ , introduced himself in return. His good mood dipped upon being christened “Tsukki” yet again, a name he had been trying to leave behind in high school, but he decided it wasn’t worth fighting one person who would never talk to outside of class anyways. ~~~~

They continued this new routine, Kuroo being late, bothering Tsukishima during class. He quickly learned he’d have more luck by cracking a joke about the professor or the material than trying to start an entirely new conversation. Now, on occasion, he could even get a laugh out of Tsukishima. More of a snicker, really, but it counted for something. Definitely a goal to work towards.

But despite these temporary distractions, Tsukishima was ultimately a good student, relatively calm, diligently taking his notes, never reading or studying for other classes, as opposed to Kuroo who always had either a game or a lab report in progress during class, sometimes both, while still finding time to talk to Tsukishima as well.

\--

Sometimes Kuroo was on time as well, or even _early_ , and on these occasions, they would chat a bit before class started as well. Nothing deep or particularly interesting, usually Kuroo trying to get a reaction out of Tsukki, sometimes succeeding. Sometimes succeeding in the wrong way and pissing him off. Whoops. They definitely weren’t friends. They might have been close enough to wave to each other in passing except for _Tsukki was a fucking asshole, I Know You See Me Just Make Eye Contact_.

However, this class, for the first time, Kuroo walked into an empty classroom. Despite being a senior, he was much less used to small classes. He took most of his classes on the main campus, and in a program like chemistry, most of the courses were bustling with people. This class, too, was supposed to be on the main campus, but Kuroo, like a fool, signed up for the wrong section and the professor, like an ass, wouldn’t let him switch. Something about “there literally aren’t enough chairs in this room.” After a week of attending class on main campus and sitting on the floor to prove a point, the professor finally informed him he would not get attendance credit if he wasn’t in the proper room, so he went to join the poor sap stuck in a room all by himself.

Kuroo thought if he were in that guy’s shoes, he would appreciate someone else to trudge through this boring class with. That guy—Tsukki, it was—didn’t seem to agree. Kuroo didn’t care though, if he was stuck in a room with one other person for 3 hours every week, he was going to make those three hours fun. Despite his seriousness, Tsukishima proved to not be a total fuddy-duddy. Just, like, 90%. But the 10% of the time Kuroo could get a reaction was worth it, so he stuck to it. Or, at least, he would, if Tsukki would show up to class. Kuroo was 10 minutes early today. Ten minutes!!! And now class was starting and Tsukki was still not here. Kuroo pulled out his DS and started up Dr. Mario, not moping one bit.

Kuroo is on level 6 when Tsukki comes in. He looks grumpier than usual. He leaves one seat between him and Kuroo but he did consider taking the one right next to him, so Kuroo considers it a win anyways. He opens his bag as always but rather than pulling out his usual notebook and pen, he grabs a stack of flashcards.

Kuroo is intrigued.

Tsukki proceeds to ignore both him and the lesson to furiously look through these notecards, but based on his demeanor, its not doing him many favors. Kuroo glances over to take a peak at what is on the notecards and barely stops himself from laughing in Tsukki’s face when he sees the answer is _polyatomic ions_. He decides against interrupting Tsukishima’s study session in favor of spending the rest of class coming up with a plan.

\--

Tsukishima doesn’t even know why he bothered showing up to this class today but after showing up late and not paying any attention, he’s not about to leave early as well. When class is finally over, he’s ready to make a beeline out of the room when Kuroo stops him.

“Nice flashcards.”

Tsukishima is not in the mood for this conversation, so he turns away again.

“Wait wait wait! You might have forgotten this bit of information, but I am, in fact a chemistry major.”

Tsukishima had, in fact, forgotten, but he was more interested now that it seemed Kuroo had more in mind than just poking at him. “…and?”

“ _and_ I am a widely sought after tutor, _and_ I know a good method for remembering those polyatomics you were looking at. Who do you have for chemistry?”

“Aikawa.” Tsukishima was thoroughly interested now.

“Okay yeah, he sucks, doesn’t actually explain shit. Polyatomics are actually super easy to name if you know why, just let me know when you’re free and I can explain it to you.”

“Now.”

“What?”

“I’m free right now, and this test is in 2 hours.”

“Well, now it is!”

It only takes 30 minutes of explaining when to use -ate and -ite and what the period plus rule is and Tsukishima is feeling much better about his test.

“Why the hell can’t he just say that in class??”

“Seriously Aikawa is the worst, you should’ve taken Chiba, he actually knows how to teach.”

“Well it’s a bit late for that now.”

“If you would let me finish,” Kuroo says with a flourish, “I will generously offer to answer any future chemistry questions you have since you are so unfortunately positioned.”

This was suspicious. “…why?”

“Because I, dear Tsukki, am a wonderful person.”

Definitely suspicious. Tsukishima deadpanned him, but when Kuroo made no move to actually explain his motives, he gave in. They exchanged phone numbers so Tsukishima could text any questions, and tentatively planned that Kuroo could explain any more in depth questions after history, despite Kuroo’s attempts to change those plans to “during history.”

\--

Kuroo wasn’t lying when he said he had no ulterior motive. He knows firsthand how shitty Aikawa’s teaching is and tries to help struggling chemistry 1 students whenever he can. So this was not a ploy to get Tsukki’s phone number so that he could mess with him more frequently.

However.

Now that he _had_ Tsukki’s phone number, he really couldn’t bring himself to not mess with him more. He at least waited until after his test though, didn’t want to distract him more.

**Kuroo:** how was the test

**Tsukki:** aced it ✌️ 

Kuroo laughed. Cackled. Straight-up guffawed. He couldn’t decide whether the immediate response or the emoji was funnier.

**Kuroo:** lmao so ur saying out of EVERYTHING polyatmcs was the only thing giving u problems

**Tsukki:** memorization is not my strong suit 😣

**Kuroo:** don’t u do that dinosaur shit?

**Tsukki:** we usually call it “paleontology,” but yes.

**Kuroo:** okay but like how many of those dino names u got memorized??

**Tsukki:** they’re actually interesting though.

**Kuroo:** OKAY WOW. I SEE HOW IT IS

**Kuroo:** I TRY TO HELP AND UR JUST GONNA SHITTALK ALL OF CHEMISTRY LIKE THAT

**Tsukki:** 😶 tell me one interesting chemistry fact.

**Kuroo:** fuck you I have MANY interesting chemistry facts

**Kuroo:** just give me a second to think of one…

**Kuroo:** actually u know what heres something stupid for you. u know water, right?

**Tsukki:** no what’s that

**Kuroo:** fuck you. anyways, as u likely know, the solid form of water is ice, and ice is a crystal. like most, it has multiple crystal strtuctures, 6 to b exact

**Tsukki:** I asked for something interesting 🥱

**Kuroo:** I AM GETTING THERE anyways the structures are called 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, and 7.

**Tsukki:** wait is that it?

**Kuroo:** YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO ASK WHAT HAPPENED TO FOUR

**Tsukki: 🙄** what happened to 4?

**Kuroo:** well, someone thought they had discovered a fourth phase, and they named it, and then someone discovered the fifth phase and everyone was used to calling it the fifth phase so by the time they realized the fourth phase didnt exist they just kept it as 5 and numbered up from there.

**Tsukki:** I was half joking about there being no interesting chemistry facts but I think you’ve convinced me that there actually are none.

**Kuroo:** fuck you I bet you never made a bomb in class. whos boring now??

**Tsukki:** you made a bomb? 🤨

**Kuroo:** ya just some small dry ice ones

**Tsukki:** do all of your stories involve ice? Its almost like you’re trying to shoehorn in a theme that you forgot about or something 😒

**Kuroo:** maybe ;))

**Kuroo:** shit wait I should probably actually study instead of just shittalking ice researchers. ttyl, congrats on the test!

**Tsukki:** see ya, thanks for the help! ❤️

Kuroo stared at that final text. Specifically, the final character. A heart. Tsukki sent him a heart. He knew this was a thank you heart, and yet part of him, the stupid part, decided to respond.

**Kuroo:** ❤️

Bad choices made, Kuroo switched off his phone to finally actually study for his own test.

\--

They continued like this for a while, going to class (where Tsukishima still attempted to ignore Kuroo), studying afterwards, and texting. It started out mostly as chemistry questions or facts. Kuroo seemed determined to give one interesting enough to appease Tsukishima. They were not, in fact, all about ice, and some of them actually were pretty cool, but Tsukishima maintained his stark defense in part to keep up the joke, and in part so Kuroo wouldn’t stop sending them.

Kuroo, Tsukishima had noticed, never used emojis in his texts, with one exception. Whenever Tsukishima put a heart at the end of a message, Kuroo would always send a heart back.

Tsukishima started to send more hearts.

\--

He had to be doing it on purpose. There is no way, no way that anyone used that many hearts in text messages. Who adds a heart to a message that says “you’re late”??? Did Tsukki know? He had to know that Kuroo had a crush on him. With his stupid face and his stupid texts and his stupid heart emojis and the stupid way he pretended to be so diligent in class when he clearly wasn’t paying attention anyways. Tsukki had to know and be playing Kuroo for a fool. Collecting Kuroo’s heart texts to fuel his… okay the analogy wasn’t working but there’s no way this was a coincidence! Kuroo was taking a stand, he was not going to send one back.

**Kuroo:** omw geez

**Tsukki:** no heart? 🥺

**Kuroo:** …

**Kuroo:** ❤️

God he was stupid.

\--

When Kuroo arrived to their “hold each other accountable for being productive even though we’re studying different things” meeting (not date), he was more tense than usual. Between that and the lack of heart earlier, Tsukishima wondered if maybe he’d taken things too far? He always thought Kuroo had seen the heart thing as an inside joke between them, instead of the sad attempt at flirting that it had become on Tsukishima’s part. But maybe directly asking for one had been too far. Tsukishima was pondering this, definitely not being productive, when Kuroo waved a hand in front of his face.

“Need a break? Whatcha thinking about?”

Tsukishima stared at Kuroo for a second, and then: “I like you.”

It was Kuroo’s turn to stare now, in a state of shock.

“What I meant is, uh, hm, the hearts? That I’ve been sending? I’m, well, that’s what they mean. If it makes you uncomfortable, I’ll stop sending them.”

Kuroo’s shock turned into a smile, and then a laugh, and Tsukishima could tell. It wasn’t a laugh of mocking, it was one of happiness. But he waited for Kuroo’s laughter to die down so he could hear him say it in words:

“I like you, too.”

**Author's Note:**

> Kuroo is thinking hell yeah flirting in class but Tsukishima still pretends to ignore him during history. Just now sometimes he is also holding his hand while ignoring him.
> 
> A FEW NOTES:  
> Aikawa's name is a pun on a shitty chemistry teacher at my school so if there is more shittalking of Aikawa than strictly necessary that's why. 
> 
> Any typos in Kuroo's text messages were actual typos made by me while writing, however they were intentionally kept there bc idk felt right. Any other typos are unintentional.
> 
> And last but not least, this is an open invitation for anyone who needs help learning polyatomic names. If you're memorizing, I promise you, there is an easier way.


End file.
